As Zizian ‘cult’ leader is arrested here’s what they believe
Mysterious alleged Zizian cult leader Jack Lasota was arrested alongside an accomplice in Maryland on Monday.
The elusive head of the largely transgender, vegan group had gone as far as to apparently fake his own death in 2022 to avoid scrutiny. However, at the time of Lasota’s arrest he was wanted in both California and Pennsylvania.
Taken into custody alongside Lasota were alleged followers Daniel Blank, 26, and Michelle Zajko, 32, a person of interest in the double murder of her parents – both fatally shot in their heads at their home on New Year’s Eve 2022.
Their deaths are two of four linked to the cult – which is based around LaSota, 34, who previously went by Ziz online – alongside an elderly landowner in California and a border patrol agent killed in a shootout with another member of the group in Vermont on Jan. 20.
A map showing the deaths linked to the Zizian group in California, Pennsylvania and Vermont.
Jack Lasota aka ‘Ziz’ in his Feb. 16 mugshot provided by the Allegany County, Maryland, Sheriff’s Office. Although Lasota prefers female pronouns he was booked by police as male. AP
Police say members of the Zizian group could number as high as 30 and they appear to be mainly young trans women who are math and computer whizzes, who previously worked at NASA, Google and on Wall Street.
They gather around Ziz, who was born male but now identifies as female and grew up in Alaska before moving to the Bay Area. There he gathered acolytes who believe in the same eccentric and arcane blend of Silicon Valley-driven Rationalist movement theories and animal rights.
Both investigators and people who know the Zizians told The Post many of them have been estranged from their parents, some are thought to be on the autism spectrum and that they are an anti-sex group who take hormones for their gender transitions.
The Zizians are involved in esoteric practices like “unihemispheric sleep”— a practice not dissimilar to hypnosis where adherents are told to sleep with one eye open in a state of chronic exhaustion.
Michelle Zajko, who is transitioning from female to male, pictured in a Feb. 2025 mugshot following her arrest in Allegany County, Maryland. Michelle also goes by the name Jamie. AP
A panel describing the main Zizian members.
The practice is meant to prove the two hemispheres of the brain are distinct identities, with one side thought to be female and one male, one side thought to be good and the other evil. They two sides “often desire to kill each other,” according to Lasota’s blog.
“They talk as if they really believe they have supernatural powers and they believe movies like ‘The Matrix’ are real and they can manipulate reality,” an investigator familiar with the Zizians told The Post.
“They talk about the Nazis and the Holocaust a lot. They’ve made it very difficult and confusing to catch them. They all have so many aliases and move around a lot. We think a lot of what’s happened can be traced back to Ziz.”
Because many of the group use numerous different names and a variety of pronouns and have been linked to California, Vermont, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, it makes them more difficult to track according to police sources.
Jessica Taylor, 32, of Berkeley, Calif., first became friendly with at least four Zizians beginning around 2015 when she met them at the Center for Applied Rationality, an organization in the city which hostsworkshops on cognitive science and “de-biasing” with a mission to “develop clear thinking for the sake of humanity’s future,” according to its website.
She said Ziz appeared normal at first and they had discussions about “self”. But by 2019, Taylor said Ziz had started to strike her as “creepy” – especially when he gave a “strange description” of the suicide of a mutual connection, which seemed to link to the group’s theory on brain function.
An eariler picture of Michelle Zajko, who is a person of interest in the double homicide of her parents. no credit
Mugshot of Daniel Blank, who was also arrested alongside Zajko and Lasota by the Allegany County Sheriff. AP
“Ziz’s belief was this person had two brain hemispheres, one good – another one non-good, like selfish… [and that led to a] commitment to kill the self.
“And I already knew two of about six or seven people in his group had committed suicide by this stage – which is a lot for a small group. It was strange. They had a high death rate.”
Two people in the group’s orbit who took their own lives were named Maia Pasek, who left a quasi-suicide note in 2018 referencing rational thought processes, and Jay Winterford — also known as Jacob Pekarek — a math and science graduate in 2021.
Since then the death toll has risen dramatically, including four civilians.
Nine years ago, due to the high cost of living in the San Francisco area, Lasota and other Zizians lived aboard an old half-sunken tugboat in Pillar Point Harbor near Half Moon Bay.
There they befriended Curtis Lind, a boat enthusiast described by one friend as an “old, friendly hippie.”
Around 2020 he invited the group to live in campers and box trucks on his modest property in nearby Vallejo which he had envisioned as a sort of artists’ colony, a close friend of Lind told The Post.
Lind didn’t charge the group rent during the worst of the pandemic but when it was over he requested some payment – but the Zizians refused to pony up.
“Curt was just a great guy,” his friend and neighbor of 25 years, John Jenkins, 66, told The Post.
Vallejo landlord and boat lover Curtis Lind after he was stabbed 57 times, allegedly by Zizian members, in 2022. He lost and eye and was impaled in the back with a sword.
“He was cool with [the Zizians]. They obviously were a little different but he was very open-minded.”
By “different,” Jenkins said he meant the group appeared to be mostly men when they arrived to camp on Lind’s land — but then he noticed mail was coming for them with both male and female names.
“Then we’d see one walk down the street with his shirt off and we’d see boobies,” Jenkins said. “It was a little confusing. But Curt just told us they were transgender.”
Jenkins was on the property when Lind was allegedly violently ambushed by a group of Zizians in Nov. 2022.
Jenkins said Lind was carrying his pistol at the time because group members had been throwing rocks at his house. They allegedly stabbed him 57 times, taking out his eye and thrusting a sword through his back.
Lind fired back at his attackers, killing Amir “Emma” Bohanian and injuring another Zizian. He then limped over to his close friend, Pat McMillan’s, trailer.
Lind was stabbed to death last month on his property in Vallejo, CA. A young man believed to have ties to the Zizian cult has been arrested in connection with his murder. gofundme
Amir “Emma” Borhanian was among the Zizians living on Curtis Lind’s property. She was killed in the fight between the Zizians and Curtis Lind in 2022.
A booking photo of Jack Lasota after his arrest in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, in Jan. 2023 where he refused to speak and kept his eyes closed while being photographed. AP
“His eyeball was hanging off his face and the sword was still impaled in his back when he got to Pat’s,” Jenkins said.
Lind survived that first attack and went on to live a relatively normal life, although without his eye, Jenkins said.
Two people from the attack on Lind were scheduled to go on trial this April, with the victim as key witness. However, last month Lind was murdered, with his throat allegedly slit by a 22-year-old Seattle man, Maximilian Snyder.
California prosecutors have claimed Snyder killed Lind to prevent him from testifying against the suspects accused of the earlier attack on him.
Snyder had previously obtained a marriage license to wed another Zizian, Teresa “Milo” Youngblut, 21.
US Border Patrol agent, David Maland, seen here with his K-9 partner Cora, was killed in a shootout with two Zizian-affiliated persons in Vermont last month. AP
The area on Interstate 91 in Vermont where Border Patrol agent David Maland was killed last month. REUTERS
Teresa Youngblut, 21, was arrested after a shootout in Vermont last month in which a Border Patrol agent was killed. Ophelia, né Felix, Bauckholt, a German math whiz with ties to the Zizians was also killed in the shootout.
Three days after Lind’s death, Youngblut was also dramatically killed.
She had been in a car with Ophelia, née Felix, Bauckholt, 27, a math whiz from Germany who had been part of a lively and fun Jersey City-based group of fintech wizards before getting involved with the Zizians.
US Border Patrol agents pulled them over in northern Vermont and Police say Youngblut fired a weapon, killing agent David “Chris” Maland, 44.
Bauckholt also pulled out a gun but was killed in the exchange of fire. Youngblut is now being held in a New Hampshire jail in connection with Maland’s murder.
The shootout shed light on another case which was, until then, going cold — the handgun used to kill Maland was bought by Zajko, according to police.
German math genius Felix “Ophelia” Bauckholt was killed after a gun battle with US Border Patrol agents last month.
A surveillance video still showing Teresa Youngblut, who is now charged by the FBI in connection to the shooting death of US Border Patrol Agent David Maland. The picture is taken days before her shootout with Border Patrol. AP
Zajko, reportedly transitioning from female to male also and also using the name “Jamie,” was questioned by police about the murders but then fled.
Friends said they had heard the elder Zajkos were increasingly distressed by their estrangement from their daughter and it’s believed they told her she was going to be cut out of their will if she didn’t resume contact with them, shortly before their murders.
Friends of Zajko’s parents say they can’t believe she wasn’t already in custody.
“We are still so confused and angry that nothing has been done and there’s no justice for Rich and Rita,” said a longtime friend of the couple, who were landlords of about 16 apartment units in the area.
“If that Border Patrol agent hadn’t been killed, I bet their case would never have been solved.”
Friends of Richard Zajko, who owned and managed 16 apartment units in Pennsylvania, was said to be a kind and generous man who “would give you the shirt off his back.”
Rita Zajko, 69, of Chester Heights PA was found shot in the head on Jan. 31, 2022 with her husband.
The source, like many friends of the murder victims, did not want to be publicly identified because they fear retribution from the Zizians.
“It’s only when the Border Patrol agent was killed last month that everything became connected. They didn’t deserve this.
“They couldn’t have children which is why they adopted Michelle. Rich used to say his wife was over the moon when they got her as a baby.”
Pennsylvania state police sources told The Post they believe they had enough evidence to arrest Zajko for the murders but the Delaware County DA’s office told the Post cops still had not provided adequate evidence. With Zajko’s arrest this week on unrelated charges, that could change.
The Zajkos home in Chester Heights, PA has been sold and sources told The Post they don’t think their daughter benefited from the sale. AP
Ring camera video from two neighbors’ homes the night of the murders shows a car pulling up to the Zajko home at 11:30 p.m. A minute later, screams of “Mom!” and “Oh my God! Oh, God! God!” could be heard. The footage showed two people going into the house and then an upstairs light went on. Nine minutes later two people were seen leaving the home and driving away in the car.
One of the two neighbors who gave their Ring video to police admitted to The Post it was impossible to make out from the video who got out of the car that fateful night.
With the arrests of Zajko and Lasota, the seven most prominent members of the Zizians are now either dead or in custody.
Lasota’s sister, Naomi, had reported him missing in 2022, claiming he had fallen off the back of a boat. The Coast Guard searched but did not find a body and an obituary was published.
Jack LaSota in a picture taken before the Zizian group was started in the San Francisco area around 2016. lesswrong.com
However, far from dead, Lasota was then arrested in a police raid on a Pennsylvania hotel in Jan. 2023 by officers investigating the murder of the Zajkos.
In that incident LaSota reportedly kept his eyes closed, refused to speak and had to be carried from the hotel room by four officers after refusing to move.
LaSota was charged with disorderly conduct and obstruction, according to court records, but did not show up for hearings.
The trio arrested this week were all held without bail after a brief court appearance Tuesday. Currently they all face minor charges of trespassing, obstructing and hindering and possession of a handgun in a vehicle.
“I shouldn’t be here, I haven’t done anything wrong,” Lasota said by video link when beamed into a Maryland court on Tuesday.
How long Lasota can be uncooperative remains to be seen, but prosecutors in various jurisdictions across the US are now preparing cases.
“I warned Ophelia about the Zizians,” Taylor told The Post. “I knew about the suicides in the group – so I thought that when people go there it’s maybe dangerous for them. This group has a high death rate. And that was even before the murders.”
